SEO and Usability: A Perfect Combination

Back to basics: Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process if tweaking a website so that this websiet ranks well on search engines for certain search queries. Usability refers to the ease of use with which a web page can be used by its intended audience to accomplish certain goals.

These two should be on every aspect of web building process. First, SEO tries to accomplish the task of bringing traffic into a website. Mind you, SEO brings targeted traffic because search engines display results based on relevance with search query. So when someone searches for “hong kong removal company” he/she expects that search results will feature businesses involved in the removal service. The connection is eventually established. SEO has accomplished its task.

As a visitor clicks the link and visits the landing page, the task of Usability kicks in. Visitor looks for certain information:

Basic information
What are the challenges/handicaps of moving on your own?
What do I need to do before I decide to get a relocation company?

Product/service comparison
* How much does relocation cost from Quarry Bay to Tung Chung?
* What other services does this company offer?

Call to action hunting
* How can I contact these guys?
* Where can I subscribe to their newsletters?
* Where is the relocation estimate form?

For a visitor to perform our desired actions such as stated above, they should first be provided with necessary information and start to trust and rely on us.

In some cases, SEO is implemented at the expense of usability. Wanna find out what kind of sites are these? Here are some characteristics:

* Blatant use of bold text all over the site, because an SEO told them bold text helps rank well.
* Littering page titles with repeated instances of the keyword.
* Compromising content copy in favor of predictable keywords and phrases.

Sometimes too much focus on SEO can be costly. What if your site rank well but visitors leave the very first moment they reach the landing page? I don’t think you’d call it success. Or if visitors were convinced to make the conversions, your form validation process doesn’t work properly? How’s that for user experience?

Therefore, attention and focus should be employed in both search and usability areas in our websites. This helps us (and our site visitors) achieve goals.